Happy Independence Day!

What better way to celebrate all things American than with a barn quilt and a barn quilt!!!

On a recent visit to Northern Illinois to visit my family, my sister, brother-in-law and I went “barn quilting” in Racine County, WI. (For more information about the Racine County Barn Quilts Click Here)

I saw this barn quilt and I LOVED it!!! I don’t think I have ever seen a pattern like that before. Of course I had to take a photo – (click on any photo for a larger view.)

And since I was visiting and staying with my Mom & Dad for nearly three weeks, and I had access to a sewing machine and sewing tools (thanks to my sister Sherree) guess what I did?

I made my own Stars & Flags Barn Quilt quilt!

I did take some liberties and added the extra stars across the top of the quilt for added length. I am planning on donating this quit to American Hero Quilts, and organization that makes and donates quilts to active duty wounded soldiers. (For more information about American Hero Quilts Click Here)

This quilt is has been quilted but I am not yet posting a photo of the finished quilt. I am working on turning this quilt into a Summer Mystery Quilt Event. I hope to be posting the details in a few days.

Take some time today to celebrate your independence and your freedoms with your family and friends!

Enjoy the day, I know that I am. And I am free to do what I love, which is quilts and quilting!!!

A few days ago I posted photos of my Patriotic Star quilt block and I have had several requests for the instructions on how to make this block. I have written out the instructions for both the Patriotic Star quilt block and the instructions on how to make the table runner.

I have also put together a photo tutorial on how to construct this block. Note: These instructions are photo intensive and I have the photos at a small size so more can fit on the screen. Click on any photo for a larger view.

Fabrics

1 Fat Quarter or equivalent of the fabrics listed below will make 1 Patriotic Star block, plus a few more!

Star Center – Striped Fabric

If you are using Red and White striped fabric, place the pieces a shown in the photo at the far left. Stitch together like a 4-Patch to form the Star Center. Press as desired. This piece should measure 4-1/2 x 4-1/2 inches square, including seam allowances.

Make 1 Star Center for each block you are making.

Star Points – Using Templates/Rulers

If you are using piecing templates/rulers, follow the directions to make the following 4-1/2 inch square Star Point blocks.

For EACH Patriotic Star Block you will need the following –

1 – Star Point with Blue fabric on the left and Red fabric on the right. (See upper left)

1 – Star Point with Red fabric on the left and Blue fabric on the right. (See upper right)

2 – Star Points with Red fabric on the left and Red fabric on the right. (See bottom left and right)

If you are NOT using piecing templates/rulers, go to the next section.

Star Points – without rulers

Note: – I like to use a padded and gridded ironing pad or a folded terry towel on top of my ironing board. Yes, I know that my ironing mat is a little (??) grubby. I use it quite a lot with my piecing!

Start with the Red Star fabric to make the Star Points.

Take the “flaps” that were to the inside, and fold them out as shown at the right. Make sure that the fold that is being created is along a long straight line. The RIGHT side of the fabric is on the top.

Press to make a crease line along the fold line. You now have right and left leaning long triangle pieces.

Your Star Points should look EXACTLY like the photos at the left.

Remove the pins and re-position the (new) long triangles as shown at the right.

DO NOT TRIM YET!!

Take a light 4-1/2 inch fabric square and position ONE Star Point as show at the right. Make sure that the lower (straight) corner of the triangle matches the same corner of the background square.

Carefully open the Star Point and place a pin or two on the “under flap” of fabric.

Instead of pins, use fabric glue stick or similar product to hold in place

Stitch just inside of the fold line.

Fold the Star Point back into position and make sure it is lined up properly. When satisfied with the placement of the triangle, trim the excess under flap and background fabric to 1/4 inch from the seam.

If desired, press the diagonal seam OPEN!

The “open” seam make quilting MUCH easier!

Place the remaining Star Point on the 4-1/2 inch background square exactly as shown in the photo. Make sure that the lower (straight) corner of the triangle matches the same corner of the background square.

Carefully open the Star Point and place a pin or two on the “under flap” of fabric.

Instead of pins, use fabric glue stick or similar product to hold in place

Stitch just inside of the fold line.

Fold the Star Point back into position and make sure it is lined up properly. When satisfied with the placement of the triangle, trim the excess under flap and background fabric to 1/4 inch from the seam.

If desired, press the diagonal seam OPEN!

The Red Star fabric Star Point Unit is now completed! When finished, the Star Point Unit should measure 4-1/2 inches square, which includes seam allowances.

Make a total of 2 Red Star fabric Star Point Units for each block.

Then make –

1 – Star Point with Blue fabric on the left and Red fabric on the right.

1 – Star Point with Red fabric on the left and Blue fabric on the right.

Putting the Patriotic Star Block Together

Place the Star Center, the 4-1/2 inch square Background Corner pieces and the Star Points EXACTLY as shown in the photo to form the Patriotic Star Block.

For about the last year and a half, I have been helping my Daughter-in-Law with a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group at her church. I get to work with the babies from newborn until they are crawling. I am thoroughly enjoying doing this.

In the Nursery where I work with the babies, there are some baby quilts that the “church ladies” have made. These quilts are pieced fairly well, but the quilts are tied and they have IMHO “icky” batting. So, with permission, I have been taking the quilts home, taking them apart, fixing them, re-quilting them and then bringing them back to the church.

Here are some photos of the process. (Click on any photo for a larger view.)

This is a cute 4-Patch with all sorts of wonderful fabrics. The fabrics feel like good quality fabrics and the batting felt like it was pretty good. The edges were finished with the “birthing” technique – right sides together, stitch around all four sides, leave an opening and push the quilt, with batting, through the opening, sew the opening closed, then tie the quilt together.

I took the stitching out of the side seams, cut out the ties and this is what I found.

The batting was completely gone in some sections. I took the batting off of the fabric and placed it on a piece of cardboard to show you what it looked like.

I believe that the batting was a bonded polyester – I have NO idea what brand it was. I also have to say that these quilts are “rode hard and put away wet!” After they are used, even for a little bit, when the babies go home the quilts go into the laundry hamper. And they are “loved” only as a quilt can be loved by a baby!

I can’t remember if the ties on the quilt were in the places where the batting is gone or it’s the other way around. Either way, the batting, at this point, is NOT good!

I began to work on the quilt top and, because of the “birthing” technique and trimming the corners, I had to replace the corner squares. I cut my squares too small and had to put some extra piecing in them, but I got them in there!

Then I added borders to the quilt and quilted it using wavy lines using a variegated thread. Can you see my corner squares?

It was dark and rainy outside so I hung the quilt up in my studio for the photo.

So, what did I use for the batting? My favorite batting, Soft & Bright from Warm Company. I LOVE this batting! Soft & Bright is “built” the same way that Warm & Natural is built – with a scrim between the layers of the fibers, either cotton of polyester. I have used Soft & Bright in my own quilts and in my Grand Kids quilts for YEARS and the batting still looks great – even after being VERY well loved!

I also put new backing fabric on the quilt and bound it.

Here you can see a close up of the quilting and the backing fabric.

My mission now is to do this with all the quilts in the church nursery and maybe the other child care rooms.

I’ll keep you posted on my progress and let you know how the Soft & Bright is holding up!

I am proud to work with American Hero Quilts, a charity which presents quilts to wounded soldiers.American Hero Quilts (AHQ) works primarily with wounded soldiers at Madigan Army Hospital at Joint Base Lewis McChord, south of Seattle, WA. AHQ also sends quilts to Afghanistan to help keep wounded soldiers warm as they are transported out of the country for more medical treatment and recovery.

AHQ is now working with the Warriors in Transition program and they need 1,500 more quilts!

AHQ has many quilt tops ready for quilting, but they need machine quilters! If you have a quilting machine, or can quilt on your home sewing machine, please contact American Hero Quilts at helpinghands@americanheroquilts.com for information on how you help.

I have quilted several quilts for AHQ and plan on picking up a few more to work on.

On a personal note – I was married to a Vietnam Vet for 32 years and my Son-in-Law is a career soldier with over 20 years of service. I know how much AHQ’s would mean to them.

—————————————

Below are some photos of a quilt that I made, from start to finish, that I will be donating to AHQ.

I pieced this quilt top over Labor Day last year and quilted it a few weeks ago. It is aDisappearing 9 Patch pattern made from patriotic prints. When I put the 9 Patches together, the fabrics “moushed” together, so I added 1 inch (finished size) sashing and corner stones. Then, I found out that the quilt was just a little bit small, so I added the stars in the corners.

Click on any photo for a larger view.

For the quilting, I did free hand Ribbon Stipple in the body of the quilt and I used the Longarm U, Curve & Point template for the border. You can see the quilting in the border in the photo below.

Here is a photo of the quilting in the star block .

One last photo of the back of the quilt. I love the texture the quilting gives!

This was a fun project and I know my quilt will be going to a great cause. And will be loved and used by a wounded soldier!

I know things are getting hectic and Christmas is coming up FAST, but I thought I would take a few minutes and post a few photos of my recent charity quilts and things.

I’m a little late for Thanksgiving, but, I do want to say that in the last few years I have recognized and acknowledged that I am truly blessed. My life isn’t perfect but it is good and getting better. So in the spirit of “giving back” I have made a few quilts – and other things – that I have recently donated to charity. I know that the charities will use these quilts as they see fit, but I do hope that, if possible, they use the quilts to raise funds for their cause.

The two quilts I am showing I donated to the MultiCare Financial Aid department. When I had my hip replacement surgeries last year, the Financial Aid Department worked with me so that I could receive the (literally life changing) surgeries I needed.

The first quilt I pieced using a variation of the Disappearing 4 Patch design. (Click on any photo for a larger view)

The fabrics were a pansy print, yellow marble and light lavender marbled fabrics. In the photo, the light lavender looks blue.

I used Pastels varigated thread from Signature and Soft & Bright batting. Here is the quilting from the back of the quilt.

I LOVE the texture of this pattern on this quilt!

The other quilt I donated is a kids quilt made from 9 Patches. This quilt has been done for a while – I was working with some new template patterns – and it was just sitting around here. I looked at it one day and thought that it would make some child – probably a boy – very happy. So it was donated also.

I used several of my circle templates to quilt it and again used Soft & Bright batting. Here is a close up of the front of the quilt.

I hope you can see the texture of the quilting. Here is the back of the quilt.

In addition to being a quilter, I am also a knitter. I was looking on a knitting blog and saw a plea for knitted (or crocheted) scarfs for the Red Scarf Project. This project donates scarfs and other items to Foster Kids who are now in college or in higher education. As a Grandmother of five children, hopefully soon six children, who were adopted from Foster Care, how could I NOT help out.

So I raided my stash of yarn (yes, I have a yarn stash, although the fabric stash is MUCH larger!) and found some red, and shades of red, yarn and began knitting.

Here are four scarfs I knit during November. They are simple patterns but they worked well in the scarfs. The yarn in the red and white striped scarf was dyed that way and the stripes were somewhat random sized. All the scarfs are acrylic yarn and will wear VERY well.

If I have some time later on, I’ll post the knitting directions for the bias striped scarfs. They are fun to make, and if you use a varigated or striped yard, it is fun to see the pattern develop.

I quilted the quilt using a pattern called Around Corners. I like the effect of the circles and the loops – to me, it looks like balls of yarn that my cats have been playing with!

Click on any photo for a larger view

I used Soft & Bright batting and a varigated gray thread. Then there was the issue of the binding!

I looked in my considerable stash, but couldn’t find a fabric that was “right” for the binding. I was in Southern California teaching quilting classes and my host took me to a quilt shop. There I found the absolutely RIGHT fabric for the binding which is below.

This fabric is perfect – or should I say purr-fect! So when I got home from California, I put the binding on the quilt.

The quilt is hanging sideways, it’s too long to fit on my backyard clothes line. You can barely see the binding in the photo, but it is just purrfect for the quilt!

Here is the back of the quilt. I love the texture and movement of the pattern!

I know that the MEOW Cat Rescue people will put this quilt to good use – hopefully as a fund raiser for the great work they do.